On May 8, 2018, the Trump Administration proposed rescissions totaling approximately $15.4 billion of unobligated funds appropriated in prior fiscal years. The proposed rescissions target funds appropriated for a variety of federal activities, including, but not limited to, animal and plant health programs, rural rental assistance, U.S. Forest Service land acquisition, loans to automobile manufacturers to produce advanced technology vehicles, and funding to states under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In many cases, the proposed rescissions relate to programs whose authority has lapsed or programs that are not expected to require the amounts proposed to be rescinded under current spending projections. As a result, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates that the proposed rescission of $15.4 billion in appropriated funds would translate to a $3 billion reduction in outlays from the Treasury. A proposed rescission is one of two types of presidential actions authorized under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), which was enacted to regularize the process by which the Executive impounded, or withheld, funds that had been appropriated by Congress. Although impoundments of federal funds have been made by the executive branch as far back as the Jefferson Administration to avoid waste or inefficient spending, it was the increased use of impoundments during the 1970s in furtherance of broader policy or economic goals that precipitated the enactment of the ICA.
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